The National Commission on Military, National and Public Service recommends that the federal government optimize its hiring processes and modernize civil service preferences to sustain the information technology workforce, Fedscoop reported Tuesday. The commission advised that the government needs to develop technical skill standards, create a civilian group comprised of former government IT employees and grow the Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy.

Additionally, the agency noted that the government may offer a 12-month noncompetitive eligibility to federal internship graduates and assess around 35 percent of general schedule and senior executive service performance on recruitment, personnel management and human capital roles.

The memorandum was released during a recently concluded hearing for critical skills on May 15. The agency intends to host 13 more hearings before it delivers a final report to Congress in March 2020. The commission has also encouraged the public to send their suggestions in light of the report.

Legal challenges and implementation problems could emerge as a result of the potential merger of the Office of Personnel Management with the General Services Administration, Nextgov reported Tuesday. Recently, the White House submitted a legislative proposal to Congress to reorganize OPM into GSA and establish a new office of federal workforce policy within the Office of Management and Budget. The office will be headed by a non-Senate confirmed appointee with the rulemaking authority.

“A search on the Code of Federal Regulations for ‘Office of Personnel Management’ reveals [more than 700 references] across 41 titles. So the question of the rulemaking fix required to attend to the administration’s proposal is huge,” said Donald Kettl, professor and academic director at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

Kettl also cited legal issues that could surface from regulations that could be introduced by the workforce policy director.

“Any effort to do so seems certain to generate legal challenges, which could well tie up the reorganization in court,” he said. “The simplest answer is [retaining an] OPM director as a figurehead. But that, in turn, raises the question of why go through all of this, without defining the basic problem to be solved and devising a strategy that seems most likely to solve it.”

The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress accepted a set of five recommendations to increase the public transparency of the Congress’ internal activity. The committee said Thursday that it will document these recommendations into a report to serve as guidance for involved groups within congress.

Recommendations include the standardization of a legislation writing format and the allotment of resources needed to complete legislation comparisons on schedule. Another recommendation emphasizes the modernization of a lobbying disclosure system for simplified disclosure tracking.

The last two recommendations push for the development of electronic hubs to centralize information on reauthorization expiration dates and committee vote counts. U.S. citizens would be able to access these hubs and view corresponding information.

“These bipartisan recommendations are just the first step towards making the legislative branch more effective and accessible for the American people,” Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Tom Graves, R-Ga., said in a joint statement. Kilmer was appointed to chair the committee in January.

The Department of Agriculture is modernizing its services as part of the Trump administration’s 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, Federal News Network reported Friday. The IDEA Act, signed into law in December 2018, directed agencies to establish a strategy to modernize their websites by June 20 and provide electronic access to all paper-based documentation by 2020.

Gary Washington, chief information officer of USDA, told attendees at an Adobe symposium in Washington, D.C. that the department wants to update its information technology infrastructure and consolidate call center operations by July to quickly address farmers’ loan applications. USDA also plans to modernize its Farmers.gov citizen services site and reduce the number of data centers from 38 to two under the General Services Administration’s Centers of Excellence program.

“I love the fact that people can get on their devices now, thanks to this legislation — or will be able to, once it’s fully implemented — and actually access government websites, and actually be able to navigate them,” noted Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, at the Service to the Citizen awards gala.

The U.S. Army issued a solicitation of industry feedback on the service’s plan to apply emerging technologies to modernize military bases, Federal News Network reported Friday. The service held an industry day to discuss the “installations of the future” concept, which aims to improve operations, maintenance and resilience of bases amid the growing threats of natural disasters, cyber attacks and other risks. 

“The National Defense Strategy states very clearly that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary,” said Richard Kidd, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategic integration. “We’ve been treating our military installations as if they were sanctuary cities for a very long time, immune from the effects of the adversary.”

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to bring predictive maintenance to military installations. USACE is exploring the Virtual Testbed Installation for Mission Effectiveness, a new artificial intelligence-based tool that provides predictive maintenance of facilities. Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham, assistant chief of staff for installation management, said the Army should also invest in 5G wireless connectivity, biometrics, cloud-based platforms and connected sensors to better connect soldiers, equipment and facilities.